Sunday, September 26, 2010

After a quilting marathon that lasted a week, it's done. Binding on, cat hair (mostly) removed and handed over to it's new owner. It's a group project made to celebrate a "zero" birthday.

Next on the craft agenda is one of these:

A wedding bouquet made out of buttons for my friend Shanon. This one is listed on Etsy, but there is a 36 week waiting period for orders. As she is getting hitched in 6 weeks, we decided to have a go and make one ourselves.

We have been acquiring buttons, searching for shiny things and trying to work out to assemble it. We've managed to locate the silk flowers and ribbon flowers and found some old jewellery at the op shop that can be included.

We had a craft day yesterday to shop for the last bits and pieces needed, and came home to assemble button flowers until our fingers start bleeding. 6 hours later we had this:

I just need to finish the ribbon handle and add a diamante buckle and it’s done.

Apparently sitting in my lounge room is like being in the middle of Wild Kingdom, with wild beasts just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting visitors. I have 2 cats and a lorikeet. One cat is friendly and likes to be petted by visitors. The other will remain hidden behind the lounge chair for hours at a time. The lorikeet is in a cage (I’ll admit he’s a bit noisy). Hardly Wild Kingdom.

Shanon doesn’t care for cats, so every time Fifi glanced at her or walked past her she would jump up in a panic. Eventually things settled down and Fifi decided to roost in the shoebox that Shanon had been collecting her buttons in. It was a tight squeeze, but she managed to get in there. Shanon doesn’t want her box back anymore.

Friday, September 17, 2010

A little while ago I saw the Fabric of Society exhibit. Some amazing quilts with their history documented by Annette Gero. I bought the book, too. The most expensive book (that is not a textbook) that I’ve ever bought. I’ve implemented a no eating rule for looking at this book, and considered a white glove rule as well but I didn’t have a pair so that fell by the wayside. But definitely no food near the book.

Victorian Quilters are having a contest for quilts made based on quilts in the book – there are 30 or so patterns included. I like a contest – apparently I have a competitive streak – so thought I might have a go at making a different (for me) sort of quilt. The one that intrigued me most is this one – Mrs Keens’s Quilt. The quilt wasn’t travelling with the exhibit, it’s kept at the Queenscliffe Historical Society. It has cats and ponies on it – it’s completely bizarre.

This one didn’t have a pattern in the book, so I am trying to recreate it from the pictures and draft it myself in EQ5. The original is hand pieced over papers, but I am going to use modern methods. I think I’ll use foundation piecing for most of it, plus the little bits of applique. After a couple of false starts I’ve managed to do these:

The block is supposed to be 10 inches, but it’s a fraction under that, probably because of the number of seams involved (14 X 14 squares that should be 3/4 inch each). Just as well I measured the finished blocks, because I can adjust the rest of the quilt easier that I can fix the sizing on these ones.

I just need to get a few other projects out of the way so I can get stuck into this. I want to start embroidering the ponies. And cats! lots and lots of cats!